. >> the president, for his own convenience, didn't want another vote on the debt ceiling before his re-election. >> true. >> and so he forced this process to occur and insisted. >> but he didn't want the sequester cuts. >> well, no. he didn't want the cuts, but we had the sequester as a result of his demands. and i'm told my colleagues in the house that the sequester will stay in effect until there is an agreement that will include cuts and reforms that put us on a path to balance the budget over the next ten years. >> but no tax increases. >> no tax increases. the president already got $650 billion worth of tax increases january 1st. he got a trillion dollars worth of tax increases in obama care. this year the federal government will bring in more revenue than any year in our history and yet we're still going to have a trillion dollars budget deficit. spending is the problem. >> the white house says in response, yes, it's true. taxes went up more than $600 billion over ten years at the end of the year but it is also true the white house put $1.5 trillion worth of spending cuts in t